C’mon man. As a Baylor grad you should know Cottonwood is the real number one course in Texas!
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I actually am friends with a former Baylor golfer and have played cottonwood with him before and actually liked playing it haha.
Played it many a times. Took a 1 hour golf class out there my senior year… ha. As far as Waco courses go, it’s second best in Waco (behind Ridgewood) which isn’t saying much…
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I live in Fort Worth and have been a Texas golfer for my entire life. If anyone ever wants to get out and play, I am always down to get out early and play with new folks.
There are five private clubs in Fort Worth proper that are worth a dang. They are: Colonial, Shady Oaks, Mira Vista, Rivercrest and Ridglea. Each club offers something different and depending on what you are looking for…there is something for everyone.
I do know that Mira Vista (Weiskopf and Jay Morrish design) is the ‘new kid on the block’ but the course offers the most unique golf in town. Southwest Fort Worth provides some elevation changes that the other four clubs simply don’t have. And they are offering very competitive initiation fees until those go up on April 1. A strong junior membership (40 and under) here and a first class men’s locker room. Beautiful clubhouse with sunset views each night that will make you forget all those bad shots from earlier in the day.
Colonial and Shady Oaks are both old school designs with history around every dogleg. Everyone is familiar with the tournament at Colonial every year. I’ve heard it said that if a man could play one Fort Worth club only one time, he should play Colonial but if he could play one Fort Worth club for the rest of his life, he should choose Shady Oaks. Ben Hogan was no stranger to either club.
Ridglea offers a family friendly club lifestyle with a 1960’s style clubhouse and young-ish membership. This is the only club that provides two (2) 18 hole courses, one of which is men’s only for most of the year. Take that however you want.
Rivercrest is where the Fort Worth money meets to eat. It is definitely the ‘who’s who of Fort Worth’ country club. The clubhouse is grand and the course is…well the course is very well maintained.
I am always down to learn about clubs in different parts of the State. What are does everyone know about Houston/Dallas/San Antonio clubs?
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@JohnnyBoy Shady Oaks is phenomenal. It oozes Hogan. I have lived in Dallas my entire life and mainly played Dallas Athletic Club growing up, thanks to some friend’s parents that let us free load. For the money you out down to join it doesn’t get much better. Yea, it’s in the middle of Mesquite but you get two Jack Nicklaus designed golf courses and they are always in great shape. I have also been invited out to Lakewood a few times as well and that place is more in line with Colonial and Shady Oaks. Short, old, but has stood the test of time and will challenge any level of golfer. Bent Tree is great too but kinda gets over shadowed being neighbors with Preston Trails. As far as the heavy hitters in Dallas…Dallas National, Preston Trails, DCC, Brook Hollow, and Royal Oaks…I haven’t played them but they are all suppose to be top notch and all completely different. @birdiesforthebears is probably the guy to ask about Vaquero.
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@ejectinglefty89 I went to SMU for undergrad and I always thought I would join DAC if I stayed in Dallas. Sounds like you feel similarly. I hear the initiation is incredibly reasonable compared to the rest of the clubs in town. And East Dallas is getting more and more popular anyway.
I would love to play some of the heavy hitters in Dallas one of these days. Not ever gonna have the money to join one of those, though. 
I am excited about seeing Trinity Forest at the Byron Nelson this year.
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Grew up here in the DFW area. Just moved back in May from NC. Played baseball growing up and in college and didn’t find golf till about halfway through college. Now I’m just a golf junkie and looking to play all over DFW when I can.
My favorite DFW courses so far: Stephens Park, Old American, Bear Creek, Iron Horse (although a little too tight), Heritage Ranch, The Tribute, Tour 18 (cliche but still fun), Gleneagles
Love seeing all the other courses listed on here. Looks like there’s a lot more I’m going to have to check out.
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I can’t believe Cedar Crest is this far down. I can’t speak for the private clubs in DFW, but as far as the daily fee, you can’t find a better combination of land, routing, condition, price, and history. Same with Stevens Park but it seems they get more publicity.
So, everyone in the thread…when are we getting a group together?
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Had a bad experience at Cedar Crest. Had two groups of 6 in front of us, and that just ruined the round. Need to go back out there and try again though.
I’m also playing a course in Kingland,TX this upcoming April for the second time called the Legends course. Its a good track on the LBJ Lake. Worth trying out if you live in the Austin area.
I play down in Houston. Unfortunately the good public courses struggle with conditioning due to rounds played for charity outings, etc. Wildcat, Meadowbrook farms and Black Horse are at least consistently average. Anything else you find on golfnow will be about the same as any muni, but with houses and OB galore.
Memorial Park is by far our best muni track with rumors of a large renovation in advance of hosting the now sponsor-less “Houston Open” in the coming years. Howeva, the tee time lottery system for memorial park is nearly impossible to navigate. Sharpstown Park, Gus Wortham and Herman Park should have a local rule allowing for a 15th club for personal protection.
The private clubs are a different story though. I haven’t played Lochinvar (all male membership and former employer of Butch Harmon) or Carlton Woods (Nicklaus and Fazio designs). I would rank the private courses I’ve played as follows:
- River Oaks Country Club
- Champions
- Golf Club of Houston / Redstone
- Lakeside
- Shadowhawk
- Houston
- Blackhawk, formerly known as Houstonian
- Royal Oaks CC
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If nothing else, it’d be fun to get a group together for the Byron and/or Colonial.
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Agreed @McRib. Apparently a post must be at least 20 characters btw so here’s some more words
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Love Cedar Crest. Played a couple of high school tourneys out there a few years ago.
Sounds like we should get a game goin at Stevens Park or Cedar Crest this weekend or next…
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I would be in for either course next Saturday ideally in the am.
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I volunteer at Colonial every year but I’m dying to get down and see Trinity Forest. Should be a nice change for the Byron.
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Lived in DFW area almost my entire adult life and have played golf regularly since grade school. The area has a lot of good golf courses but the topography of the area generaly prevents there from being many dramatic / memorable holes. Dallas national and a handful of others excluded. I worked at gleneagles and Preston trail growing up and played prestonwood and stonebriar regularly. Lucky for me, that was long enough ago where they let you play PT on mondays as many holes as you wanted. Safe to say, i took advantage of that for one memorable summer. I thought the course was more appealing from a strategic standpoint before they did the green complexes. Would like to see arials (fried egg style) of before/after he Renos 5+ years ago. Also played brook hollow / shady oaks (fw) / bent tree cc/ Lakewood. All very good courses but a tad below Preston trail in my book. Still many others that would like to play but overall I’d say the sheer quantity of good (mostly not great) golf courses is our selling point.
I always got a kick out of playing cedar crest because of the history and the routing in general is still almost better than any course in the area. If those greens ever got in good shape (i hear they are better lately ) , that place is a gem. Good to see so many Texas people on the board. We are nowhere next to many other areas in the country but still a fun place to base yourself and play all year .
let’s do the dang thing
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Welp. Looks like I am making the drive from Fort Worth and playing Cedar Crest this weekend.
https://www.golfcedarcrest.com/golf-course
Walter Hagen. A. W. Tillinghast. Byron Nelson. The 1927 PGA Championship.
Wow. Just wow.
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@JohnnyBoy @ejectinglefty89 @birdiesforthebears @Whiterockguy
and everyone else, any interest in this Sunday morning? I’m sure we’ve all got Superbowl plans, the weather looks decent, plenty of times for $43…